Page 52 of The Misfit Mage and His Darling Demon

I snarled, exhaling the frustration. Reminiscing of Eligos made me weak. His image. His belief. His kindness.

“It’s nothing. I’m just not focused.” I shrugged away the fleeting thoughts. “Thinking of one thing sort of spiraled into another thing, and all this dredging up the past is making my memories mix and get muddled.”

Wally stared at the flickering knight so intently, the image of Eligos remained in the snowy forest near Mora and my past self, completely out of place with the memory.

“This whole thing is your fault,” I teased. “I’m starting to think your whole overthinking behavior is contagious.”

“I know him.” Wally pointed to Eligos.

“You may’ve glimpsed Eligos during one of your saturated visits to my past,” I said nonchalantly. “He’s no one special. Just some demon from Hell. My Hell. But again, nothing—”

“No.” Wally trembled, panic in his voice. “I’ve seen him here in the villa.”

Wally reeled all his mana back into himself, retracting every ounce of saturation and snapping us into an abrupt awakening. The room was fogged over, perhaps a fleeting sensation from the weather in the memory or Wally’s lethargic state after jolting awake.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I’ve seen that exact suit of armor three times now.”

“Wait. What are you talking about?”

He sprang from the bed, tossing his clothes on, speaking in jumbled half-uttered thoughts, and rushing out of the room before he’d even squeezed his hips into his skinny jeans.

I sighed. Clearly, showing him my past had broken his curious little brain.

His feet pattered, swiftly rushing through the living quarters toward the helm. I took my time dressing, listening intently tohis mutterings from afar. Once I’d slipped on my gray blazer and donned a scarlet pocket square, I zipped out of the room and closed in on my adorable but often frantic mage.

He burst into the helm, lost in his dazed inquisitive thoughts, not acknowledging my presence or Mora and Kell, who sat in the lone chair by the navigation panel.

Kell straddled Mora’s lap as the demon caressed her wife’s waist and kissed her neck. Heat and lust wafted off each of them, yet Kell’s eyes lingered on some broken mechanism to an unnecessary project she was forced to abandon for romance. It sat disassembled on the control panel near the locked box holding the Demon’s Demise that I wanted Wally to keep at the ready if need be.

Wally brushed past the pair, ignoring the giggle Mora’s tongue elicited from Kell.

“Of course, now you’re all in,” Mora teased, her lips moving up to meet Kell’s, but her gaze shifted to me. “Kell’s always enjoyed an audience, but your mortal never struck me as a voyeur, Bezzy.”

“Finally, something about him I like.” Kell kissed Mora, grabbing ahold of her demon’s hair and controlling the tilt of Mora’s head as their lips enveloped each other with passion.

Kell thrusted her hips, rocking the chair that Mora kept from tipping over with a steady flux of telekinesis.

“Walter’s not here for the show. Don’t you have a room for this?”

“Three, in fact.” Mora moaned as Kell continued.

Admittedly, Mora and Kell were always a fun pair to play with, but neither were Wally’s type, and I no longer held the interest of burying my cock in whoever I stumbled upon. Plus, I had even less interest in sharing Wally with other partners.

“Why is he here?” Kell tore herself from Mora’s lips, one hand resting on Mora’s shoulder, the other instinctivelyventuring lower. “The command protocols still aren’t functioning, so if you’re trying to move us somewhere, it’ll—”

“Where’s the footage?” Wally asked aloud, but only to himself based on the inflections of his voice. “Gotta find the dungeon place thingy. No. No cameras there. But where else…”

I rushed past Mora and Kell in a blur; a powerful air current was carried by my swoosh, which spun their lover’s chair round and round.

Wally’s eyes flitted about, studying the hundreds of security videos he’d pulled up.

“Foyer works. Date was…” He bit his lip, puzzling together something in his maze of a mind.

“What are you doing?” I asked, placing a hand under his chin and turning his attention to me. It seemed the only way to steal his focus and get a proper answer.

“I’ve seen that armor before. In the baron’s villa.”

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